For if the concern about global climate change is not enough, the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an even more resounding example of the desirability of abandoning fossil fuels and use others that are renewable, can be produced in a sustainable and do not put the environment at risk.
Liquid fuels derived from biomass plants have the potential to be used as direct substitutes for gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels, as long as they can have cost-effective means of commercial production.
A team of researchers at the Joint Bio-energy Institute has identified a trio of bacterial enzymes that can perform the key steps required in catalysis of the conversion of plant sugars into hydrocarbon fuels to produce “green” for the transport.
Harry Beller, environmental microbiologist, led the study, in which a set of three genes of the bacterium Micrococcus luteus was introduced into the bacterium Escherichia coli. The enzymes produced by this trio of genes allowed E. coli to synthesize long-chain alkenes after glucose.
These long-chain alkenes can then be subjected to the cracking process to obtain shorter hydrocarbons that are compatible with current engines and suitable for the production of certain advanced bio-fuels.
Beller, Ee-Been Goh and Jay Keasling chose to work on the bacterium Micrococcus luteus because it was well documented that a close relative bacterial synthesized alkenes, and because it was available a draft of the genome sequence of the Micrococcus luteus. The first thing they did was confirm that this bacterium also produces alkenes.